Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-02-10
A DEER-HUNTER'S STORY.
How His Gun Killeda Fine Buck After BE Had
Been Knocked End Over End.
New York Tribune

HOW HIS Gun kllleda Fine Buck After he Had
Been Knocked End Over End
New York Tribune.
81 guess I never told ye bout my fust
deer hunt, and Til tell it to ye now, I'd
jest as leaves yd'd print it as not eff ye
want to-"
This was said by DIR. Banty Hull, the
| famous lager" doctor of Carbondale, the
other day.
81 want used to deer when l moved
from Jersey up into Wayne county and
settled on the Paupack more'n forty years
ago, fur | never seed deer down whar ]
was raised. Fore I'd lived there long
jeff Bostwick told me some mighty ex-
citin' yarns about huntin' deer over on
the ridge, and every time / heerd him tell
'em I'd gitwaked up SO much that I want
ed to larn more about the fun than he
could tell me. / didn't take so much
| stock in some of Jeff's yarns as I made
him blieve did, but I hankered for q
hunt myself, and so, when JEFF give me
| an invitation late in the fall of IA &c 90
| over on the mountain side and hunt
deer for whole day, was tickled almost
half to pieces, but didn't let him know
| it.
| There was nice snow on the ground
| when the day arreve fur me and jeff to
! start out for deer. I was feelin' leetle
out O. killer when jeff and his hound got
to my house airly that mornin', but as I'd
| told eff the day before that, I'd go /
want goin' to back out if it took q leg.
Wal, Jeff'n I'm the dog started out q leetle
after sunrise and made tracks for the
| mountain, where jeff said he'd kill more
than hundred deer. On the way over
jeff told me about runaways and how the
deer would frisk round as soon as they
seen the dog was on their track, and
| thinks, seq 1, faint no use for me to
know much more about deer-huntin than
Jeff's been tellin' me. But found out
furder on in the day that jeff didn't tell
me one or two things. I ought to've
know'd. [ calculated Jeffd be square
with me, cause I was greenhorn hunter,
and didn't s'pose he'd play any tricks
on me.
81 had plagued old musket that I'd
brung wild me from my hum in Jarsey,
and I'd polished an lied till it was as slick
as whistle, an, I kinder thought I'd
open Jeff's eyes leetle, if got any kind
of chance to pint it at one of them
deer Jeff'd been bellerin' so much bout.
Wal, after we'd got in the woods and Jeff "a
pun Iu0 uOuuQ Oh a track ne showed me
runaway and then said:
Now Banty you stand right in the mid
die OF that runaway, and don't leave it
for minute. The deerll come down and
when be gifts close enough fire at him.
I'll 60 over OF that hill yonder and stand
on that runaway an if hear you shoot
atore see any deer I'll run over and see
what kind of luck you had
I rirh %b IL
away according to Jef's orders, and jeff
trndged on to find his standin' point.
During the next hour could hear the dog
yelling now In one direction and then in
the other up on the hill above me now
later. and all this time stood right in
the mic die of the runaway an lust
trembled cause was afraid 1 might miss
the deer if got shot at him. I was a
tarnal sight more anxious to kill a deer
SO as to show JEFF could shoot a little
then / was to murder an innocent ami
NAL for his meat an so KEEP up courage
an waited. I'd been there nigh on to three
hours when jeff come near 'nough to ask
me if diskivered any deer yet. an when
told him I hadn't he spoke few cheein'
words an went away. It was a cold
day fur that time O. the year, an standin
still in that one spot made me numb all
over. But I was gritty and tough in those
days, an made up my mind to stand there
till dark fore I'd give in"
81 could see by the sun that it was a
good ways arter noon when I heari the
hound a yelpin way up on the hill above
where was. He'd been up and down so
many times that 1 didn't count on his
scarin' any deer down my way jest then.
My fingers were like so many clothes
pins, they'd got so cold, and SO laid
down the gun, took off my mittens, and
slapped my fingers agin' my body to linn
Der them up little. Just as 1 was pick
in up my gun agin heerd rattlin of
hoofs in the runway right above me, an
when 1 looked up there was a strapping
big buck deer amakin' for me at rate
he was bearin down on me just paralyzed
me through and through and he 'peared
to be as big as an elephant. His head
was thrOwed way back, and his big horns
stuck out on both sides, and he didn' see
me nor nothin' else. It wasn't five min
ute frum the time fust seen the buck
before he banged agin me kneckin' me
end over end down the hill. The gun
~~S'N
grid went off. Az good luck would have
it the lnuzzle was pinted down the hill
directly at the runnin' buck, end by thun-
der as true as I'm lookin' you in the eye
this very minute, the bullet and two buck
shots hit him back of the left forrard
leg and killed him in his tracks. He
went head over heels when the shot
struck him and he never got up arter
that.
II picked myself up quicker'n a flash,
brushed off my clothes, grabbed up my
gun, and run to where the dead buck laid.
jeff heerd the shot and hurried over there
He was u sickish lOokin' feIlr when he
seen me lookin' over the buck. He was
latin out loud fore he got near enough
to see the dead deer; but he LATED out
of t'other side of his mouth little later
JEFF had put me in the middle of the run
way tew get knocked over don't you see?
And when he seen I'd killed a deer as
slick as grease, he was SO discombober-
ated he couldn't speak. The joke was on
JEFF, but it was five year or more fore l
told him zactly how the deer met his